COVENANT

COVENANT

The word 'covenant' is derived from the Hebrew noun 'beriyth', the verbal root of which means 'to fetter' or to 'eat with'.

The word 'beriyth' is also associated with the 'cutting of covenant' where animals are divided, shedding innocent blood, in order to bind or seal the agreement.

In the New Testament, the corresponding word is 'diatheke', which is translated as 'testament'

Thus the word 'covenant' can readily and justifiably be substituted for the word 'testament ' which I trust illustrates how vital these covenants were, and are today, to our walk with Jesus.

A covenant is a contract or agreement between 2 parties.

It consisted of 3 parts, then and now - the promise, the sacrifice and the seal.

For us today, as an illustration, we will look at buying or selling a house.

THE PROMISE: I will buy your house at 2 Godly Place with vacant possession on 16 July 2096.

THE SACRIFICE: $375,000.

THE SEAL: The signatures of both buyer and seller.

All contracts whether for property or not operate in a similar way. Two or more parties agree to terms under certain conditions for a consideration or price.

This is the human, legal way.

God is God is God!

We cannot 'negotiate' with God as we would in a contract amongst equals.

Rather God 'commands' a contract with mankind, His servants, which we are to obey.

The Old Testament, in its most simple terms, is the sum total of all the covenants made between God and man, starting with Adam until the coning of Jesus.

The 6 major covenants of the Old Testament were given for the people through the major figures of the times in which they lived.

Adam (2)
Noah
Abraham
Moses
David

The covenants were given in great hope.

The Old Testament (the covenants) were likened to marriage, which in God's ways can only terminated by the death of one party or through unfaithfulness.

With the death of Jesus a new and different of covenant was introduced between God and man.

The New supersedes the Old. In the way God always deals with His creation, step by step, by step, the New fulfils and absorbs all the Old.

A NEW MARRIAGE

Jesus, the Christ, when He died on the cross became the bridegroom of a new marriage, between Himself and his chosen bride, the church.

It is a new, living and vital covenant, a better covenant that supersedes the old.

As we move through the covenants we will see that each of them involved a sacrifice of blood. For there must be death in order to bring forth new life.

This applies both to a cropping seed in nature, where it can only grow through the death of the parent plant. eg. wheat.

All the Old Covenants therefore involved blood which represented death to the old ways and at the same time and more importantly, life to the new.

In the New Covenant, the ultimate blood sacrifice was made, that of Jesus, God himself, so that we might all be as one with Him.

Thank you so much, Jesus!

God uses covenants to prove two things.

We can trust Him in everything.

As we all know through, if we are honest, through knowing ourselves, and certainly experience through others!

While we could spend a huge amount of time going through the covenants, the approach taken will be to analyse each one under 7 headings, which I trust will give you a good overview of them.

The first considered will be the Edenic Covenant, which as the name suggests, was made in the Garden of Eden.

Yes, the covenants are at the very heart of Scripture and an understanding of them is essential to understanding the Bible, and for our walk with Jesus.

All too often today, we tend to decry the value of history. This actually is nothing new!

However, if we are to truly understand God's plan for mankind and what Jesus actually did on the cross, it is necessary to understand the covenants.

Ancient Babylonia - The People of the Sealand

A second group of people who proved to be a formidable force was the people of the Sealand, a kingdom to the extreme south of Babylonia along the Persian Gulf. Little is known about these people as well, a list of the names of their Kings is all that has been discovered, but no native sources. We do know that it was a powerful nation that continually challenged Hammurapi's successors, and for a period of time controlled Nippur in the center of the plain. Because of their location in the south they were strongly Sumerian in character. The Kassites eventually conquered the people of the Sealand.